The Boston Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora on Saturday night, but that's only part of the story. In what was a massive statement, the team also cut ties with key assistants like hitting coaches Pete Fatse and Dillon Lawson and bench coach Ramon Vazquez. Fatse and Vazquez have been with the club for seven and nine years respectively. Game-planning coach Jason Varitek was also relieved of his duties but is being reassigned within the organization. Simply put, this is Craig Breslow's team.
The chief baseball officer took over in 2023 after working in the Cubs front office. Since replacing Chaim Bloom, Breslow has failed to coax the Red Sox to a finish better than third in the AL East. In 2025, they made their first playoff appearance under the new regime but lost the ALCW 2-1 to the Yankees.
Penny-pinching by ownership is most commonly to blame for the Red Sox recent struggles. As far as secondary issues, there'd be debate about who actually deserved to fall on the sword here.
Craig Breslow now has sole ownership in the Red Sox blame game
Cora had managed to survive two CBO oustings during his tenure as manager. Dave Dombrowski got the ax in 2019 while Bloom was let go in 2023. All the while the manager stayed in place despite failing to win a playoff series after taking the team to the World Series glory in 2018. So it's not like he didn't have it coming. We were already talking about who to replace him with.
However, Breslow has taken a lot of heat for not lifting the franchise out of the mire of the Bloom era. One could argue he's made it worse. Accused of being an analytics-driven "robot," Breslow's roster building has been just as soulless. He mishandled the Rafael Devers situation by signing Alex Bregman to take his place in the field and then trading him to the Giants for peanuts when the relationship between team and player eroded.
So it's Breslow's fault Cora didn't have Devers' power in the lineup this season. He's also the one who failed to sign Bregman to a long-term deal or find an adequate replacement to help the offense. The Red Sox have the worst OPS in the AL. And his construction of the pitching staff hasn't made up for that. They've given up the second most home runs in the AL so far.
It's also Breslow's fault he didn't trade Jarren Duran when he had the chance to actually cash in. Now Duran is an albatross hanging from the Red Sox necks.
By firing Cora and the key assistants, Breslow cleaned house. That means any messes that happen from here on out are 100 percent on him. It's his hands that'll be dirty in the end, not owner John Henry's.